The Golden Dream Review

Golden Dream, The
Juan and Sara, two Guatemalan kids desperate for new opportunities, and an Indian boy named Chauk set out together to cross the US border and answer the siren call of the American dream. Before that, though, there's the small matter of safely traversing Mexico's badlands.

by Guy Lodge |
Published on
Release Date:

27 Jun 2014

Running Time:

108 minutes

Certificate:

12A

Original Title:

Golden Dream, The

Our own Ken Loach may have recently retired from narrative filmmaking, but he could have a spiritual heir in Spanish director Diego Quemada-Díez — a former Loach assistant who makes a muscular debut with this earthy, riveting survival story. Sensitively addressing the plight of millions of Latin American migrants through that of three Guatemalan teens (one a girl disguising her gender to ease her passage) and a Mayan outsider, who head north in pursuit of a better life, it’s a humble human epic, littered with thorny obstacles and brightened with adolescent romantic tension.

A tough yet tender and beautifully crafted human drama that more than earns those Loach comparisons.
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